March 6

Fistful of Frags on Steam will be one year old in not much more than 2 months. It was downloaded more than 1 million times. I'll leave for other day some of my thoughts about making a game on the largest online distribution platform for PC. Today I'd like to tell you about the future. What do you expect, what I'd like to do, what's actually feasible.

What do you want

I have received many petitions along this time. Many persons asked for (in no specific order) map/skin workshop, more weapons, cosmetic items or a co-op mode among other things. In other words: more content, specially assets that require a good artist behind.

As things are now, it ain't no easy to release high quality content for free. Most artist out there will try to sell their creations or make their own games rather than working for free. Some content has been added along this time without any profit interest from their creators, but that's it.

What I'd like to do

One of my to priorities is new player models. Current ones look old and probably make FoF look older than it already is. Not only player models but also better player animations are needed.

I actually have done some tests. The TF2's sniper character was imported and it kinda worked. It felt a lot better as TF2 uses a much improved animation system than ours (which is still based on HL2DM era animations). The idea would be to recreate our 4 player models in a similar style than TF2 but perhaps slightly more realistic. Some animations from TF2 could be reused but lot of new ones would have to be done.

More plans: Steam inventory items as those that drop in Valve games as CS:GO, DOTA2 or TF2 and you can trade freely. Steam inventory was added recently for any Steam developer to use, however the system is still in early beta so I'm giving it some time before I approach it. What could you expect: weapon skins, scoreboard badges and items that offer minor gameplay side effect.

And finally, farther in the future a co-operative mode. It has been suggested quite a few times that there should be something along these lines: defend some place from multiple waves of enemies. So it would be kinda like that, but I'd like it to be its own thing with lot of emphasis on melee and novel features as some sort of in-game editor that allows you to design the gameplay flow (where and when waves spawn, their composition, what places to be defended by humans, certain AI cues to make enemies less robotic). So players could choose from different layouts for each map from a Workshop where creators could store their designs directly from the in-game editor. As you may guess, this will take time and can't really promise anything at this time. It just sound interesting to me and wanted to know what do you think.

What's actually feasible.

New player models, new weapons skins, new animations. I don't feel like this will happen as things are now, I simply won't ask anybody to do it for free. I did it in the past before FoF was standalone and barely anyone played it. Times have changed, there's a lot more opportunities for artists out there to work for profit, or for the chance of it at least (create a CS:GO skin and hope to be selected by Valve, for example).

I'm not asking for donations, this is not considered at all. Micro-transactions can't be added as I can't sell anything game related since I don't own a Source engine license, nor I plan to get one since the high fees to be paid. I personally don't see any good solutions.

However, I've been creating a game for mobile platforms. I'll keep working on it and some of the cash it may generate will be spent on FoF. I want to see the plans described above happen, and I think they will eventually. More details will be announced when the right time comes.

A new hope? Source 2.

Valve announced a couple of days ago their successor to Source engine. We barely know any details other than it will be fully featured free game engine and it will allow profit. Therefore, a Fistful of Frags on Source 2 could allow us to do lots of things impossible now as: selling cosmetics, creating a map workshop, or even allowing you to make profit by creating content for us.

Could FoF get ported to Source 2? Wish I could tell you, no idea. If there are tools that allow us to port our code/maps/assets then you can count on it. However this is all speculation, this new engine may not allow easy port at all or simply not worth the time. Time will tell!

February 17

Added:- fof_tramonto_12 by R_Yell, which means it only will load on dedicated servers supporting 12 or less slots. A normal sized version will be released in a further update.
- [Teamplay] cvar fof_sv_switchsides: teams are switched mid game when one of the sides reaches the score set by fof_sv_winlimit (mp_timelimit must be 0). Cash is reset and a second half is played. Game finishes when a team scores double of fof_sv_winlimit or first team outscoring the opposite team's first half score.
- updated Swedish translation by Woozie

About This Game

Fistful of Frags born years ago as a Wild West themed modification for Source engine. It has been completely renewed for its Steam release, paying special attention to combat mechanics.

Also note this is a completely *free* standalone mod, no micro-transactions exist, no registration required. Just install and play. You may see ads when joining certain third party servers that host our game for free. That's however completely unrelated to FoF dev team, we do not profit from them.

Features

Classic death-match and up to 4 teams death-match: non stop, all around action

Teamplay-objective based game mode: zone capture or 'push the cart' levels.

FoF is a little PvP shooter game placed in the Wild Wild West and it's F2P. Based on the HL2 engine it generates some nice graphics like fog, water and clouds. The 6 base maps are mostly good playable. Sometimes you fall in somekind of idle mode and can fly around the map for more examinations. The player models are much simple.You have a choice of several weapons inclusive an Indian bow and some dynamite - Yeah! There are some gamemodes where you join the different factions Banditos, Desperados or Rangers.

You can also setup your own listen or dedicated server so that nobody bother you doing the achievements. The achievements are quite simple to do with a friend together. Normally the bots are very nervewracking and strafe away from your shoots. The hardest was the Robin Hood achievement to do (headshots with the bow from a certain distance). There's also one a grinding achievement: Legend - Play 500 matches. Imagine for all other achievements I just needed about 20 matches and under 10 hours of playtime. So it turns out this is an artificial gametime extender ... Pass me the whiskey!

I'll never get what makes these Free-to-Play (and by Free-to-Play I mean truly free to play/no money allowed) games so amazing.

Source engine has done it again releasing a title that has given me hours of pleasure to play. Everything from the shooting aspect, to reloading, to the gaining of skills (and luck) makes this game extremely rewarding when you walk away from the gunfights alive. In short, a Source engine made western shooter with realistic reload times, shooting aspects, and whiskey (very important) makes for a challenging yet awesome experience that keeps me coming back for more.

A true must have with no excuse, whatsoever, for one to not at least try it out.

Funny, light-hearted, even dark-humoured, Wild West-themed Source arena shooter. Also highly replayable: if you master the gunplay and learn the maps, you can be performing some pretty cool tricks.

Personally I've found the gunplay complements different paces of games (so it's actually quite varied!). So on servers with say 3-7 players, it's more about mastering the shooting and general gameplay...

Whereas on servers with higher numbers of players, it becomes a simply hilarious Wild West shootout with echoes of "Pass the whiskey!" bounding about, and plenty of genuine "WTF!?" moments (e.g. you shoot guy in face, another guy shoots you in face, other guy shoots guy who shot you in the face etc... or in my case random encounters in bar areas with loud piano music playing...).

The FoF community is evidently still growing, but so far for me there's always been a good bunch of dedicated people online. And, as said, it's growing - so expect more people as the weeks pass ;)

The Good:+ It's fun!! :D+ It's free!! (No microtransactions or anything.. just a fun, free game!)+ Surprisingly solid gunplay given it's light-hearted exterior. Plays like a Source shooter, but you have to take a different approach to reloading, shooting and gun selection (well, they are WIld West guns of course!) in particular.+ Again, surprisingly well-designed maps / spawn points in my opinion. Learn them well, and you'll master the game no doubt!+ ..And a reputable amount of content (good number of (varied layout) maps).+ Best whiskey drinking simulator to date!

The Bad:- Erm.. I suppose some people might not like the gunplay.. they might consider it too 'slow' or possibly even aggravating at first. But play on a little more and you'll be getting positive K/D's!- Not really too much else.. It's fun and it's free. Don't like it - uninstall it! :)- I suppose we must wait on the devs for more awesome content (already got a Halloween update)!

Bottom line is this is a neat, well-executed Source arena shooter. Has good replayability because of its own twist on shooting mechanics, and the light-hearted (and almost black comedy like!) gameplay helps brighten up the game and make it really fun and interesting to play!

It's great also to see no microtransactions despite it being Free to Play. As said above - just a fun, free shooter. And ultimately - if you don't like it - then no money wasted!

Clint Eastwood's performance in this film is stellar. When he looks to his rival and says "PASS THE WHISKEY!" you really get a sense of how far into the past they go back. As if they have been fighting for decades. Leonardo DiCaprios role as the other cowboy is jarring.

This is a Source FPS, and is certainly worthy of being in my favorite category of games aside from stealth. It is a wild-west shooter where you spawn in with your selected gear and play in a variety of gamemodes. Honestly, you have probably played a Source FPS, and assuming that you have here are the differences from other games:You unlock chests (just hold "E") and can choose extra gear from it depending on which of the 3 color tiers it is.It has whiskey around the map you drink for health.The shooting is a bit different, think Counter-Strike but with more variation and even more difficult aiming.Characters look a lot different from Source games, more of The Ship than Half-Life.Just like other Source games, there are many modded servers with varying maps.In conclusion, this is an amazing game that any FPS fan should download.

Drank whiskey and got drunk.Jumped majestically through the air kicking someone in the crotch and killing them.I swing around and throw an axe into someone's face.My life is then ended by a man punching me to death.My last words were: "Pass the whiskey"